The whole thing would take nearly eight hours of listening — perhaps on a long drive back from the cottage? — but the teaser for The CIO Paradox has a surprise nugget from a well-known Canadian IT executive that could attract a new audience to the book.
Written by Martha Heller, an executive recruiter based in the U.S. and a longtime contributor to various technology publications, The CIO Paradox was originally published in 2012 but an audiobook was released only a few months ago via Gildan Media and Bibliomotion. Now available for order via Amazon, anyone interested can listen to a brief audio clip which provides a synopsis narrated by Sean Pratt. The tone in the clip captures perfectly the bemusement and occasional sense of disbelief CIOs feel about attitudes from their peers in other parts of the enterprise.
“Business people don’t understand how IT works, so they fear it, resent it and dismiss it,” Pratt reads. “Then they hire consultants for some expensive talk therapy about why they should fire the CIO.”
Meow! But it gets better:
“A Heather Campbell, former CIO of Canadian Pacific Railway, lightly observes in the chapter on accountability versus ownership paradox, ‘My former boss used to say there are only two types of projects: business successes and IT failures.’”
That one wouldn’t have been out of place as a book-jacket blurb. For $20, you can purchase the audio version of The CIO Paradox in its entirety. For more from Heather, check out the 2011 video where she discusses the work she did for one of Canada’s best-known organizations, or find her at IQManagement.
